Realm of peace
by Neko Espada
Summary: AU story about Quincies life in the Royal Realm.


At the evening little Juha peeked into the room to find out what his father Eliodas was doing. The latter was sitting at the writing desk, reading some manuscript.

Judging by the black haired man's glance, he was deep in his thoughts. He wasn't paying attention to anything around him and was fully concentrated on the runes written on the paper. It looked like his mind was wandering somewhere afar. At the same time it gave his glance some mystic trait.

Then Eliodas blinked and finally noticed his son staying nearby.

"Oh, Juha-kun.. Looks like I got carried away by new technique creating once again. Sorry."-Eliodas said, patting the boy on the head.-"Do you want me to play with you?"

Juha nodded.

"Okay. If you wait a little until I finish my work.."-Eliodas said, glancing at the manuscript again.

"I understand."-Juha said, going to leave.

"Wait."-Eliodas called.

He put the manuscript aside and sighed quietly.

"Kids at his age want a lot of their parents' attention. Try to spend more time with Juha-kun."-Eliodas remembered his wife's advice.

"Looks like Aura was right."-he thought.-"Besides, there are not many other kids around here. No wonder that Juha-kun is bored."

Eliodas was going to tell that he will play with his son now, but suddenly a wind gust blew through the slightly opened window. In the same time the reishi lamp in the room grew dim, creating bleak shadows in the room corners. Eliodas quickly turned to the window, frowning. Little Juha tensed due to his father's reaction.

Eliodas was keeping silent for a while but then relaxed a bit and closed the window. Then he remembered something, went to the wardrobe and took some garment from there. After that he returned to Juha and put the child-sized black cape on the boy's shoulders. He also noticed that his son was feeling a bit anxious.

"No need to be afraid of shadows. They will always protect you."-Eliodas said softly, stroking the boy on the head.

"What are you talking about?"-Juha asked confusedly.

"I mean that you can feel safe in our Royal Palace."-Eliodas replied a bit evasively.-"While I am here, everything will be fine."

He added reishi to the lamp and it became bright in the room again.

Juha came up closer to Eliodas and glanced at him with a serious look.

"Father, I am not a little and silly child as you maybe think of me. Tell me the truth. What is bothering you?"-Juha said, feeling that his father was hiding something from him.

The boy tried to look so serious and majestic to give more weight to his words. It made Eliodas smile.

"I don't think that you are silly, Juha-kun. And, as I said, you have nothing to worry about."-Eliodas replied.

Little Juha sulked after that.

"Don't make such face. By the way, how is the cape?"-the man asked.

"I feel comfortable in it. But why did you give it to me?"-the boy asked.

"Think of it as a present. I will be glad if you wear it at least for a while."

Juha got a thought that maybe his father is just trying to distract him with this present.

"Fine."-the boy put on the hood and sulked even more.

"You are so grumpy for your age, Juha-kun."-Eliodas chuckled and picked his son up in the arms.-"Now, let's go and play as I promised."

On the next morning Juha was walking in the garden, when his father called him.

"Juha-kun, do you want to look at something unique our palace guards managed to find today?"

"What have they found?"-the boy felt a little curious.

"You will see. Come on."

Soon they were staying near the bush in the far part of the garden. To boy's slight surprise the bush was surrounded by glowing circle of runes.

"It was made not to let them escape."-Eliodas explained, then called someone, hiding in the bush.-"Come here."

A rustle was heard and then a group of cute blond chibis left the bush and glanced at the visitors.

"Who are they?"-Juha surprised a lot seeing the unusual creatures.

"Even I don't know."-Eliodas shook his head negatively.-"They looked lost while running around the garden. The guards caught them and brought to me."

The chibis looked a bit worried.

"Looks like they don't want to be trapped here."-Juha said.

"I created the barrier for their safety, so that they couldn't get lost in the garden and get into trouble."-Eliodas explained.-"But now, I think it's alright to let them out."

He withdrew the barrier and chibis felt a little better. The boy squatted down and beckoned them to himself. The chibis hesitated a little but then went closer to Juha.

"Nice to meet you."-the boy greeted the chibis and named himself. They replied something in their chibi language.

Soon enough they were already climbing on Juha's shoulders and examining his new cape with curiosity. The boy patted the chibis on the heads and looked really happy.

Eliodas smiled softly while looking at them.

"I hope you will take good care of these cute guys, Juha-kun."-he said.

"I will."-the boy smiled happily.

So, he spent a couple of hours playing with cute chibis in the garden.

At the noon Eliodas and Aura decided to check how their son was doing and went to the garden.

"It seems you got along with them very well."-Aura said to the boy.

"Maybe you want to do something else?"-Eliodas offered.

"No. My chibis."-little Juha said, hugging the cute creatures. He thought that Eliodas wanted to take the chibis away from him.

"Okay."-Eliodas got an anime sweat drop near his head.

"By the way, it's a dinner time already, Juha-kun."-Aura reminded.-"Even if you want to continue playing, the chibis may be feeling hungry."

The boy glanced at his new friends. The chibis noticeably cheered up, when they heard about the dinner, and started to pull the edge of boy's cape.

"I see."-Juha said. He took off his cape and wrapped the chibis in it to make it easier to carry them. After that the boy along with his family headed to the dining room.

Later that day the uninvited guests suddenly arrived to the Royal Palace. With the hearing about their arrival Eliodas became really gloomy in no time. Little Juha felt a bit curious and hid behind the column in the throne room. Soon the guests appeared there too and began to wait for Eliodas's arrival. They didn't notice the boy, so Juha was able to watch them closely.

There were two men. The one was fat black-bearded monk. He was noticeably showing awe towards the second guest. It was a creepy man with shortly cut hair and black scleras. His face showed no emotions. His whole appearance emitted something dark and unknown.

"It was a long trip, Reio-dono. I hope you are not tired."-the monk said.

"Reio?"-Juha thought in confusion.-"Isn't my father supposed to have the title of Spirit King? Or maybe Reio is just the name of this man.."

"Unnecessary concern, Ichibei."-the creepy man said in calm but chill voice.-"I wanted to meet him and I will, no matter how long the way is."

Suddenly Reio turned his head and glanced right at Juha, who was peeking out from behind the column. The boy suddenly felt petrified by the man's glance. The monk looked the same way as his master and grinned widely, showing his teeth. The chibis near the boy hissed aggressively. But Juha noticed that they were shivering slightly.

Reio made a step towards the column. The boy felt weakness due to the man's evil power approaching him.

"Enough."-the voice was suddenly heard.

Eliodas stepped into the throne room and Reio's charms faded away immediately, making Juha felt better.

"I was tired of waiting for your arrival, Eliodas. So I decided to get acquainted with your son meanwhile."-Reio said.

"I have never planned to acquaint you with him."-Eliodas replied coldly, meeting glances with Reio.

The creepy man hemmed and averted his glance, knowing that his charms won't work on the King.

"Juha-kun, I need to talk with this man."-Eliodas said to his son.-"You may go."

The boy hesitated. He wanted to understand what's going on between his father and the guest.

"But.."

In the next moment Aura appeared nearby. She took her son and the chibis and left the throne room, using Hirenkyaku.

"Are you all right?"-Aura asked, embracing the boy, when they were in the safe place.

Juha nodded gloomily.

"Why are you hiding the truth from me?"-the boy asked.-"The reason of father's anxiety was that man, right?"

Aura lowered her eyes, not hurrying to reply. Then she sighed and stroked the boy on the head.

"He is a distant relative living very far away from here."-Aura explained.-"We assume he is scheming something against our family."

"If he is so dangerous, why don't you get rid of him?"-Juha asked.

"Your father has his own reasons and methods in dealing with that man."-Aura replied evasively.

"I want to know more."-Juha said.

"We will tell you one day."-Aura said. Then she suddenly embraced her son tightly and her glance became confident.-"We will never let him harm you."

After that Juha got even more questions to ask. But his mother tried to distract him from this unpleasant theme and was able to shift the boy's attention at cute chibis, who were still recovering from the evil charms. Aura used her skills to heal Juha's friends.

Some time later Eliodas returned to his family and told about guests' leave. Everyone felt better after that.

On the next day Royal Family had visitors again. But this time it was a couple from Quincy settlement situated not far away from the palace. The people, who received special powers from the Royal Family, were living there. Eliodas was always ready to help Quincy clan with their problems, so he welcomed the couple asking for help into the palace.

"They are Engel and Adel. Looks like their son went missing yesterday."-Eliodas explained to Aura.

"Could it be the fault of.."-Aura thought about the evil man from before.

Suddenly the chibis squeaked happily and ran to the visitors. The couple was really surprised to see them, but then noticed that the chibis resembled their son a lot.

"Could it be that Haschwald turned into these cute creatures?"-Engel asked confusedly.

The couple discussed it with the Royal Family and decided that it was really so. Then Aura, who was good at recovering techniques, used her skills on chibis and managed to turn them back into the blond boy. Soon enough Haschwald was already hugging with his family.

"It probably happened because you moved to the Royal Realm from the World of Living not so long ago."-Aura supposed.-"Looks like this place can cause some unusual effects on the newcomers."

The blond boy's family thanked Aura for helping them. Haschwald still felt a bit confused after the transformation. Then he noticed Juha nearby and a bit embarrassedly came up closer to him.

"Thank you for taking care of me, Juha-kun."-Haschwald said.

Juha was a bit upset that chibis disappeared. Though, the boy in front of him was as cute as them.

"We are still friends, right?"-Juha asked, wondering if he will see the blond boy again or not.

"Of course."-Haschwald smiled.

Soon enough the kids were already playing together happily.

A couple of days later Juha woke up during the night, feeling some unknown reiatsu somewhere nearby. He decided to check who it was and left the bed. Haschwald sleeping nearby felt something too and woke up as well. He didn't want his friend to leave, so Juha had no other choice but to take Haschwald along. The boys wrapped themselves in Juha's cape and left the room.

Soon they were in the throne room, where the unknown reiatsu was felt last time. But the room appeared to be empty and no traces of strangers were seen around.

"Hmm. Maybe it was just my imagination."-Juha said.-"But I should tell my parents about it anyway."

The boys were going to leave, when suddenly a rustle was heard in the corners of the room.

"What's this?"-Haschwald asked worriedly, cuddling to his friend.

In the next moment a group of creepy skeletal hands appeared from the darkness and quickly surrounded the kids, making them exclaim. The hands were making nasty clattering sound while moving closer to their prey.

"Get lost!"-Juha exclaimed, trying to hit the enemies with his reiatsu. But unfortunately it wasn't strong enough to defeat them.

The hands prepared to jump at the boys and attack. Juha quickly pressed Haschwald tighter to himself, trying to protect him.

The hands rushed at the boys, but all of a sudden a shadow abruptly emerged from Juha's cape and hit the monsters with force. The skeletal hands were thrown away but were not going to give up yet. They attacked again but this time shadow attack was even stronger. It grabbed the monsters and crushed them to pieces.

When the last enemy was defeated, the shadow disappeared as suddenly as appeared before. While kids were trying to understand what happened, their parents ran into the throne room.

Soon the boys were sitting on the bed in Juha's room. Aura was checking if the kids were hurt.

"Undoubtedly, it was Reio's evil deeds."-Eliodas muttered, frowning.-"He won't get away with this.."

"It's good that you had this special cape on you."-Aura said.-"I and Eliodas enchanted it with protective magic for such cases."

Juha glanced surprisedly at his father.

"Well, I should have told you earlier."-Eliodas smiled a bit guiltily.

"I think Haschu-chan needs such cape too."-Juha said.

Haschwald shook his head negatively.

"I will be fine while Juha-kun is nearby."-he said.

"Don't feel scared after this event. I understood my mistakes and will do what need to be done."-Eliodas said seriously, looking somewhere afar.-"The peace our Royal Family maintained for ages won't be ruined so easily."


End file.
